Food Security & Livelihoods

ACF-DRC, J. Asenbrennerova

Action Against Hunger’s food security and livelihoods programs tackle the root causes of hunger by addressing problems of production, access, and income. Encompassing a wide array of activities customized to meet a community’s specific needs, our programs are designed to bolster agricultural production, jumpstart local market activity, support micro-enterprise initiatives, and otherwise enhance a vulnerable community’s access to sustainable sources of food and income.

What We Do

Evaluate Local Needs

To determine what’s causing hunger in a given area, Action Against Hunger carries out comprehensive evaluations by collecting and analyzing key data on local assets, resources, and livelihoods strategies. Our teams meet directly with community members to better understand local conditions and create a collaborative plan of action.

Respond to Emergencies

When disasters destroy infrastructure and food supplies, when violence forces thousands to flee, or when drought disrupts food production, Action Against Hunger responds with distributions of food, cash, and other items to prevent hunger in the short-term and ensure that crops can be replanted and livestock restocked in the future.

Provide Long-Term Solutions

Designed in collaboration with local populations, our strategies are context-specific: micro-grant support for families recovering from conflict, seeds and tools for agricultural recovery, livestock and veterinary services where needed, small business assistance, and other programs that help families regain self-sufficiency.

Food Security & Livelihoods Facts

Micronutrient deficiency affects 2 billion people - over 25% of the global population - making them susceptible to long-term, irreversible health effects, as well as having damaging socio-economic consequences.

If women farmers had the same access to productive resources as men, it could reduce the number of hungry people in the world by up to 17% due to increased crop yields.

Although the global target of reducing poverty (the number of people living on less than $1.25 per day) by half from the 1990 level of 36% to 18% was achieved in 2010, the number of people living in extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa increased from 290 million to 414 million in the same period.

Our Impact in Food Security & Livelihoods

In 2013 alone, we helped two million people around the world gain economic self-sufficiency including: